(NEW ICHIRAKU RAMEN) INTERLUDE

Shoko Ieiri’s lips parted slightly as her gaze drifted toward the distant skyline, her attention no longer on the conversation they had been having only moments before. Something had brushed against her senses, something alien enough that it lingered long after the initial surge had faded. It was not cursed energy. That much she knew immediately. Yet whatever it was made cursed energy feel almost incomplete and lacking by comparison.

Beside her, Satoru Gojo followed her direction before turning back to her, the faintest hint of amusement already curling at the corner of his mouth as he watched her reaction.

“You felt that too, right?” he asked.

Shoko tore her gaze from the horizon and looked at him, the shock on her face not yet fully masked by her usual composure.

“What was that, Satoru?”

Gojo’s grin widened slightly beneath the blindfold, as though the question itself confirmed something he had been waiting for.

“One of the people I was telling you about,” he said lightly. “Our new friend, Naruto Uzumaki.”

For a moment Shoko simply stared at him, the name settling into place against the strange presence she had just felt. When she finally spoke again, her voice had taken on the thoughtful tone she used when examining something unknown.

“Someone carrying energy that foreign… and he has remained unknown until now? How?”

Gojo lifted one shoulder in an easy shrug.

“Beats me.”

He leaned back against the wall behind him, body relaxed in a way that suggested the situation amused him far more than it concerned him.

“But doesn’t it make things interesting?”

Shoko’s eyes narrowed slightly.

“What do you mean?”

Gojo gestured toward the city, as though the answer might be written somewhere across the rooftops and distant streets.

“Ryomen Sukuna incarnates after a thousand years, cursed spirits have started growing bolder and more powerful every day, and now people with completely foreign energies are showing up out of nowhere,” he said, his tone almost casual despite the implications. “Doesn’t that look… convenient?”

Shoko folded her arms, the crease between her brows deepening.

“Convenient,” she repeated slowly. “You think this is orchestrated?”

“Maybe.” Gojo shrugged again, though this time there was a thoughtful edge beneath the nonchalance. “Or maybe it’s just the world getting weird all at once. Either way, I’m not ruling anything out yet.”

For a moment neither of them spoke, then Gojo shifted slightly and looked back toward her.

“But I’ll admit… that energy bothers me.”

Shoko looked at him sharply.

“You? Bothered?”

Gojo chuckled quietly.

“Not bothered enough to lose sleep over it,” he said. “But it is almost like cursed energy, yet… alive in a way that it isn't. Almost as if it were fueled by something other than negative emotions.”

Shoko studied him carefully.

“You can see its flow, but...”

“Yeah.”

Shoko exhaled slowly.

“That’s… concerning.”

“Maybe,” Gojo repeated.

Shoko frowned. “You’re taking this very calmly for someone who just discovered a blind spot.”

Gojo smiled.

“Well, panic would be boring.”

“Anyway,” he added, the playful note returning to his voice, “can you decipher that energy?”

Shoko gave him a flat look.

“If you can’t figure it out, then I know damn well I don’t stand a chance.”

Despite the words, her gaze drifted back toward the horizon again, thoughtful now rather than startled.

“But I’ll look into it,” she continued after a moment. “Although if I’m going to learn anything meaningful about that kind of power, I would prefer to examine it directly. Meeting either of them would make things considerably easier.”

Gojo’s smile widened, bright with the kind of quiet excitement that usually meant trouble for someone, somewhere.

“Well,” he said, pushing himself off the wall and stretching his shoulders, “that can definitely be arranged.”